Velikiy Novgorod — Velikiy Novgorod Map Poster & Print

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Velikiy Novgorod Map Poster & Print

Velikiy Novgorod lies on the Volkhov River, a few kilometres north of where the river leaves Lake Ilmen. The river cuts the city into two historic halves. The Sofia side on the west bank holds the kremlin, and the Trade side on the east bank grew around the old Yaroslav's Court. A footbridge joins them just below the kremlin walls, and on a map the pairing of the two banks is immediately clear.

On the Sofia side, streets fan out from the kremlin in a semicircle, crossed by curving roads that follow the line of earlier ramparts. The Trade side has its own arcs and a looser grid. Novgorod is one of the oldest cities in Russia, mentioned in chronicles from the ninth century, and UNESCO lists its medieval monuments together with the surrounding area.

Archaeologists here have recovered many medieval letters written on birch bark, kept intact by the waterlogged soil, and they record ordinary life in unusual detail. A Velikiy Novgorod map poster shows where that life took place. You can see the oval of the kremlin with the Cathedral of St Sophia inside it, the fan of streets and the slow bend of the river as it heads north toward Lake Ladoga.